By Dawn Bazely Dawn is one of our long-standing contributors and has contributed: poinsettias, cranberries, red-osier dogwood, amaryllis, white cedar, balsam fir, paperwhites, ivy, candy cane chrysanthemums, and less traditional…Read More >
#AdventBotany
#AdventBotany 2018 Day 17: The Chestnut Song
By Katherine Preston Today’s blog is the second by a Botanist in the Kitchen, this time Katherine. It is a revisit of the sweet chestnut, last featured in 2015 when…Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 16: The snowiest of white
By Tomos Jones Dreaming of a white Christmas? Well, the plant for today’s blog is Symphoricarpos albus, the Snowberry. It’s a member of the Caprifoliaceae or Honeysuckle family, native to…Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 15: Angelica: Holiday fruitcake from a sometimes toxic family
By Jeanne D. Osnas That tendency for a deliciously aromatic and edible plant species to be closely related to an insanely toxic thing is a recursive tendency for the entire…Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 14: Toyon Story
By Andrew Doran1 and Dean Kelch2 1Curator of Cultivated Plants, University & Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley 2Primary Botanist, California Department of Agriculture, Sacramento Can you grow holly in…Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 13: Three cheers for Christmas beers
By Sophie Leguil Ask a panel of British people what they consider to be traditional Christmas drinks, and you will probably hear “gin”, “brandy”, “rum” or “Baileys”. Repeat the experience…Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 11: What’s bacon doing in Advent Botany?
By Claire Smith The almond (Prunus dulcis) has been grown in Britain since the 16th century, and almond paste quickly became a popular medium for making moulded desserts or sweetmeats….Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 10: Christmas Palm
For me, stuck in the cold damp of a British winter, the idea of a Christmas palm gives me a bit of a wish I was there feeling. There is…Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 9: Christmas Orchid or Star of Bethlehem
The wonderfully named Angraecum sesquipedale is also known as the Chritsmas orchid or Darwin’s orchid. It seems an appropriate plant to write about as it brings together a reminder of Christmas…Read More >
#AdventBotany 2018, Day 5 – Winterberry
Europeans are familiar with the evergreen holly, Ilex aquifolium, that is used as a midwinter decoration because it is evergreen and shows the promise of new life and growth in…Read More >